


The Courting of Cats and Rabbits

by Only_1_Truth



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Animal Traits, Arranged Marriage, Banter, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, I just needed an excuse to give Q bunny ears, M/M, Predator/Prey, Sharing a Bed, Stereotypes, accidental/unplanned marriage, feline!Bond, honestly mostly fluff, no one is part of MI6, rabbit!Q, sensual touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:01:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29574300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Only_1_Truth/pseuds/Only_1_Truth
Summary: Rabbits are always taught one thing: avoid predators.  In modern society, you can still end up being torn to shreds if you don't watch yourself around folks from predatory clans.  So when Q's father ends up with a massive gambling debt owed to a group of cats, Q doesn't see any way to get his stupid father free of this.  Their family will be in debt for the rest of their lives at this rate.So Q does something reckless.  He offers himself up as payment for his father's debts.The real shock is that one of the cats - a terrifyingly well-dressed fellow with blue eyes - takes Q up on that offer.The next question is: Will Q survive the night, or will he become a reminder of why rabbits don't last long in the hands of cats?
Relationships: James Bond/Q
Comments: 55
Kudos: 366





	1. The Bravery of Rabbits

**Author's Note:**

> So, not gonna lie, I wrote this entire fic because I wanted to give Q soft rabbit ears - so now everyone has varying degrees of animal traits, and backstory, and world-building, all because of my shameless need for bunny ears. Enjoy!

“This is insanity, Q,” the voice of one of his older sisters piped up, sharp with worry. At least she was keeping her voice down, although Q imagined that the whole warren shared her sentiments.

Honestly, so did he. This was insanity.

He kept buttoning his shirt, not replying.

Another of his sister’s chimed in from where she was sitting on the edge of the bed, “Yeah, Q, be serious. You’re talking about… about being with a predator here.” 

Her voice was a lot softer than the first had been, but Q still heard it. He had ears as good as any rabbits’ - even though his were slicked down against his neck now. He told himself it wasn’t a fear response, just like he told himself his hands weren’t trembling on the buttons of his shirt.

His little brother had to make himself heard, and also tried to get into Q’s line of sight by leaning against the standing mirror, “You don’t have to do it!” His ears were up straight, vivid white like their mother’s - genetics that Q hadn’t inherited. Clearly upset, the younger leveret turned to the others beseechingly, “Come on, guys, tell him - he doesn’t have to marry the damn cat!”

“I do, Timmy,” Q finally spoke up. He’d gotten the last button up at his throat. He looked pretty good - like all rabbits of his clan, he was naturally small and lean, and the tailored shirt and trousers accented that. The subdued olive green of the shirt picked up the different shades of hazel in his eyes and the black trousers matched the shoes he still needed to pull on. His youngest sister had told him to wear all black, as if for a death. “If I don’t do this, we’ll all be in trouble.”

“You mean that dad and his gambling habits will be in troub-” one of Q’s siblings started to snipe but the rest of the litter hushed her even as Q saw someone in the mirror as the door to his room opened. Every leveret went smartly silent and still, a natural reaction that had served their breed well as humanity had grown from nomadism to tribes to towns and now to modern cities. Rabbits were still rabbits, no matter where they hutched. 

Their mother stepped in. She hadn’t inherited the ears of their kind, although Q knew she wore a full skirt so that she could hide the white puff of her tail. She also had a slight harelip, but a lot of other clans had that - even some panthers, Q had heard, although not the fellow he’d agreed to marry. 

Looking austere and impenetrable in a way that had helped her make a place for herself in the business world despite her animal clan, Q’s mother looked him up and down. She had animal traits that could be hidden - that meant she’d always had prospects. Q had the ears and tail, meaning that if he hadn’t become a bargaining chip to pay off their father’s debts, he would have struggled to rise above mediocrity. Now he would be extraordinary if only by dint of the fact that cats and rabbits did not mix. 

Q knew that some of his many siblings were taking bets on how long it would take for his _extraordinary_ existence to end in him being eaten. Sometimes the downside to the large litter of rabbits was that they didn’t take the potential loss of a sibling as seriously as they could.

“Wear your best coat,” was all his mother said. Her voice sounded clipped and strained; she hadn’t shown emotion since Q’s childhood memories, because women were already discounted in the workplace for being emotional. For rabbits, it was worse. “I’ve already shined your shoes.”

“Do you want me to start the car and warm it up?” said the sister who had talked about Q ‘being with a predator’ and stuttered because none of them could imagine saying ‘being married to one’ or ‘fucking one’ or possibly even ‘being torn to shreds by one.’ She had inherited incredible legs but no other rabbit traits, and would likely do very well in society somewhere - at least so long as this was the last time any of them had to pay for their father’s gambling.

The glint in their mother’s eyes said that it would be. 

“No,” said Q’s mother, her voice suddenly very subdued, “They already sent a car.”

~^~

The drive was silent. Uncomfortable. To be fair, it could have been worse. When someone had brought up the idea of an alliance as a way to alleviate the family debt, the cats gathered in the room had laughed uproariously. They’d joked - quite loudly - that rabbits were worth “a few mouthfuls and more than a few fucks,” but that Q’s father owed more than that. The cat in charge (an honestly terrifying individual with pale hair, wide-set eyes, and a too-wide grin that showed off canines and carnassials in a horrifying way) had added that Q’s father wasn’t much to eat or to fuck. 

Then Q’s father, looking just as desperate as a hare surrounded by cats should be, had remembered that he’d brought his son with him, and he’d wildly offered him up. 

Q was at least _mostly_ certain that this hadn’t been done with any real expectation of anyone accepting. The wild guffaws had certainly increased. A few long, feline tails had even lashed, clearly offended. At that point, Q had been so scared that he was going numb to it all, because the only road he saw out of this was with cats doing what cats did to stupid rabbits: kill them. 

But then a well-dressed fellow with almost no animal-traits at all (a sure sign of someone who blended well with any society, even if his expensive business suit didn’t hint at that already) stepped up and said that he’d buy the debt for that price.

The laughter had stopped, at least. 

And neither Q nor his idiot of a father had ended up as cat-food.

And now Q was sitting in the back of a car with two cats chauffeuring him, both sneaking obvious glimpses back at him in the rearview mirror. He pretended not to notice, because they looked both curious and confused - and he didn’t have either the means or the interest in alleviating either of those conditions. 

Q got the sense that something like this had most definitely never happened before, and he could understand why. London was truly a mix of many clans nowadays, but certain divides remained: predator and prey animals did their utmost to avoid each other, and while intermarriage was not illegal, it was certainly less common between certain clans. One of Q’s older sisters had married into a clan of deer; he had two inlaws who were mice. One of his brother’s had brought home a girlfriend covered in feathers, a parrot likely. Predator and prey, though…?

Chances were still high that Q wouldn’t live out the night.

Especially since the cat at the head of the meeting, with the wide-set eyes and too-wide smile, Raoul Silva, had said that one of the conditions of the deal was that Q and the well-dressed cat - Bond, Q had heard him called, never even learning his first name - consummate their pairing. There was definitely some rivalry between the two. Q was quick enough to notice that a mile away. Somehow Q had gone from a pawn in his father’s debt issues to a pawn between two rival tomcats. 

Sighing quietly and shifting so that his tail was more comfortable against the seat, Q wished for a moment that he was less of an obedient son. Unfortunately, as soon as he thought of that, he imagined the whole family in jeopardy because of their father’s habits - the very thought made a shiver crawl down Q’s spine, and he closed his eyes tightly for a moment. ‘ _Just breathe_ ,’ he told himself, ‘ _Just breathe_.’ From here on out, his mother would keep his father in line, and the family would no longer be in danger; thanks to Q, they were debt-free again, and owed these predators nothing. 

Well, Q owed one of them his arse, but he was honestly pretty sure that he’d get his face clawed off before anything else could happen. The demand for Bond to ‘consummate their pairing’ honestly felt more like a power-move than anything else, an attempt to outmanoeuvre this Bond fellow in some way. Since Q was unlikely to live long enough to learn more about that, he should have stopped pondering the matter.

Instead he obsessed over the rivalry between Bond and Silva for the whole car-ride. In his defence, Q had always had a hyperactive brain, and it was best to keep it fixated on something. 

~^~

It was almost like an out-of-body experience to be led right into the depths of feline territory, to the point where Q felt like he was dreaming - or at least in some sort of waking nightmare. Q knew London well, and likewise knew what places were strongholds of what clans. Therefore, he knew exactly what highrise he was being walked into, his two chauffeurs now being joined by a whole plethora of other gawkers. For the first time in Q’s life, there was not a single rabbit - not even a single prey-animal - within sight, sound, or scent of him. All he could smell was cat, and it had his instincts screaming at him to run like he’d never felt before. His heart hammering in his chest, he somehow still managed to walk forward, reminding himself that he hadn’t inherited the athletic legs that his sister had - and he wasn't all that good at running. And even if he was, he hadn’t dressed for it. 

Reminding himself that this was for his family and that it would be uncouth to start screaming and (literally) rabbiting like a spooked kit, Q walked between what now felt like his bodyguards right into the building. He was stared at the whole way, and definitely heard plenty of whispers. Even with his ears slicked down with anxiety, he had excellent hearing. What he heard wasn’t encouraging, but it wasn’t surprising either: everyone expected Bond to take him apart piece by piece. Apparently this Bond fellow had inherited cat claws - Q just hadn’t seen them because they’d been retracted the whole time before. As the elevator doors closed, Q closed his eyes and gulped, unable to stop the heavy shiver that went down his entire body. He clasped his left hand around his right wrist in front of him to still the shaking. 

People had always whispered, with a kind of avaricious glee, that Bond was a terribly dangerous fellow. Apparently everyone was taking bets on how fast the screaming would start. And how slowly it would stop. 

Q didn’t open his eyes until the elevator door dinged open, and then only opened his eyes when one of his two guards nudged his shoulder. He jumped at the touch, ears springing up for the first time, but the cat looked almost embarrassed and retracted his hand quickly as if not sure what to do with it. The other favoured the first with a jaded sort of look. The tail flicking behind the less jumpy cat was tufted at the end - a lion. His tousled golden hair matched that, although the eyes that moved to Q were green. “Door at the end of the hall,” he said, accent British but a bit thick and rolling with something else, “Don’t knock. You’re expected - and it’s not like your arrival hasn’t raised quite a bit of fuss already.”

For a second Q had the ridiculous urge to say something like, “Well, it’s not my fault that this whole thing got arranged” or “Sorry to raise such a fuss. I’ll do my best to at least die quietly.” He bit his tongue before he could say something stupid, though, instead just satisfying himself with a glare - that glare would be his one last brave thing before he died, he decided. Having just survived the biggest confrontation he’d ever had with a cat (after having spent more time with more felines than his whole family put together, probably), Q straightened his back, spun on his heel, and strode off down the hall like he wasn’t quaking in his shoes.

His bravado left him rather quickly once entered the room. Honestly, he’d felt his courage failing him the moment he’d touched the doorknob - he’d barely managed to make himself push it open, having to repeat fervently to himself that he was doing this to save his family, that they were all lucky that this arrangement had served to erase his father’s entire (and considerable) debt. 

As Q closed the door behind himself, however, taking in the dimly lit penthouse suite, he for the first time admitted that he wasn’t at all sure why Bond had done that in the first place.

“Hopefully you didn’t have any issues arriving,” a voice to Q’s distant left surprised him into jumping and twisting around. His ears snapped up and forward, to his embarrassment - ears were the most obvious of rabbit traits, and he always felt as though they made him even more vulnerable, somehow. It broadcasted him as one of the smallest of prey-animals, even if his slim, unintimidating frame didn’t. 

Bond was at what looked to be a minibar, pouring himself a drink of some sort. It was still daylight out, but the curtains were closed, and only what light slipped past them illuminated the room - that and the screen of the big cat’s mobile phone. It was then that Q realized Bond had more feline traits than he’d previously thought: blue eyes glinted and reflected the light as they turned from the phone’s screen to Q, a startling reminding of what a nocturnal predator the sharply-dressed man was. Seemingly unaware of how Q tensed up, Bond finished his previous thought, “I told Alec to keep a close eye on you.”

“Alec?” Q found himself parroting back numbly, feeling almost as if he were having some sort of out-of-body experience. Nothing in his life had prepared him to be here, in a shadowy room, alone with a predator. He might have made a move to turn on the lights if he didn’t feel frozen to the spot; _not bolting_ was already hard enough.

The phone screen blinked off; Bond moved so that he was leaning one elbow against the bar, looking relaxed and powerful. He shrugged one shoulder. “The green-eyed lion who picked you up. He works for me.”

“He works for… you.” Q swallowed thickly, words feeling like foreign things in his mouth for a moment longer before he finally managed to swallow again and then form an actual sentence of his own, “As opposed to Silva?”

Blue eyes flashed as Bond’s head lifted a bit more sharply, clearly caught off-guard by the question. Q wanted to slap himself. Of all the things to say, why had that been the thing to fall out of his mouth? Sure, he’d noticed the strange power dynamic between the two big cats when his father’s debt had been called up, but hyper-focusing on it in the car was very different from saying it out loud in front of a cat who was essentially meant to be his husband now (but who was more likely to become his murderer in a moment). 

Even as Q lifted a much-too-late hand to press it over his mouth, however, blond eyebrows were raising and Bond was answering, “Yes, actually. Very astute of you.”

If Q were at home with his family or even another prey-animal, he’d have said something snide about how he hated being patronized, but right now patronized seemed very much better than being attacked. He let out a shaky breath and dropped his hand to his side again.

Bond had cocked his head to one side. He looked the very picture of a thoughtful, dashing businessman now, if one ignored the occasional way his eyes reflected the light. “Come sit down,” he said, extending a hand towards one of the barstools in front of him, “I want to talk with you.”

Talking was honestly the last thing that Q had expected to happen here, and it was in a state of bewilderment that he found himself walking forward, mostly on reflex. He slid into the farthest barstool from Bond, and just watched, totally confused now, as the cat removed his jacket and took a seat as well. It was almost like they were just two individuals settling down for a polite business transaction.

Perhaps it was the weirdness of it all that had Q blurting out before Bond could break the silence, “So this is how this is going to go? I don’t even know your first name and now we’re…” Paired up? Married? Different clans used different words and Q couldn’t get any of them out of his mouth. So after a moment with his mouth hanging open he just finished awkwardly, “...Just going to sit and talk?”

“Well, we’ll actually have to do more than talk, if only because Silva is technically in charge,” Bond replied smoothly, and then waved a hand at the room, “and there are cameras in the room. Don’t look for them.” The last command was said smoothly, just as Q’s neck had tensed to turn and do just that, ears once again lifting - they dropped in frustration now. Bond looked unperturbed, although Q caught a definite hint of pearly claws on the man’s hand as it moved. If Q’s ears were giving away his mood, so were the claws on Bond’s fingertips, slipping faintly into view. Q felt his heart-rate ratchet up again. “I was hoping that closing the curtains would make it dark enough to obscure what they could see, but apparently the penthouse suite doesn’t come with blackout curtains,” Bond added, grimacing now. His claws arched out further and Q couldn’t tear his eyes away from them. Rabbits like himself were not built for durability, and while not all cats had claws, this one certainly did - and he was built with the power to use them. “You can call me James, by the way. And you are?”

This was getting more and more surreal by the moment. Q tore his eyes away from the claws tapping lightly at the bartop (with the dim lighting, it was like watching the silhouette of a demon’s hand, powerful fingers tapering into slim talons) and managed to meet cool blue eyes. What kind of cat had blue eyes? “Q,” the boffin answered on reflex. 

Eyebrows startled upwards again. “Really?”

Now Q felt some of the ruffled temper that had flared up in the hallway. “Really,” he deadpanned back, then pressed his lips together and made a promise to stop antagonizing predators. 

Surprisingly, instead of being offended, the cat - James - coughed out a laugh. His smile was small, but even in the greyness of the room Q could see the corners of his eyes crinkling with amusement. “You just keep getting more and more surprising,” James mused, perhaps to himself. The claws, somewhere between now and when Q had last looked, had disappeared. Perfectly normal looking fingers splayed on polished wood. “Do you want something to drink?”

“I _want_ to know what you’re going to do to me.” So much for not back-talking dangerous creatures… Q wished his voice hadn’t come out so soft, fissured and fragile like a layer of shale. He knew that his ears were down against his head again, sleek and dark against his hair, making his glasses shift on his nose. 

The humour faded out of Bond’s expression, and Q braced himself. ‘ _Here it comes_.’ The violence he’d been expecting. His instincts screamed at him to run, but he reminded them that he’d come here of his own accord because he had to - running now would be counterproductive. And probably pointless, seeing as he was in the middle of feline territory.

James lifted the drink he’d apparently poured for himself earlier, taking a sip from it with pale eyes never leaving Q. When he put the tumbler back down, he clenched his hand around it for a moment - and then relaxed his grip. The claws that had briefly extended disappeared again. “I’m not going to slaughter you, if that’s what you’re thinking,” the larger man surprised Q by saying.

Patently disbelieving, Q gave his ears a swivel and somehow managed to croak out, “Really?” The word was perhaps meant to sound hopeful, but it came out sounding sarcastic. Damn. 

Bond’s response was another brief chortle - at least Q’s lack of a filter was amusing for one of them. “Really. I’m not as barbaric as many of my clan. If anything, I’d really like it if there was less animosity between predator and prey.”

Now Q was growing suspicious. Eye’s narrowing, he said more slowly this time, “Is that so?” and didn't try to hide the wariness in his tone. 

“It’s bad for business,” was James’ answer to that, and Q realised then that he had no idea what James actually did. Raoul Silva ran all of the major gambling dens in London, and many of his clan were in on that - but none of them dressed quite like the cat in front of Q did. 

Figuring that there was no harm in asking when he was already in the worst situation imaginable for a rabbit, Q queried, “And what business would that be?”

What he got was a secretive little smile and an oblique, “Different business from Silva.” More information was forthcoming, however, as James raised a hand to wave it vaguely towards their surroundings, “Or, at least, I’d like it to be. Silva and I don’t see eye to eye on how things should be run, and it’s started to become a point of contention.”

“So is… this-” Now Q was the one gesturing, this time between them. “-His way of punishing you for these...points of contention?”

“To a point, yes. Well, he didn’t force me into it, but he’s certainly making the best of it now - forcing us to go through with it and all.”

“That’s fucked up,” Q felt the need to clarify. If his last day alive was going to be as a pawn in a feline rivalry, he felt he had a right to say that.

James was chuckling again, this time while also shaking his head as if he found something about Q’s attitude to marvel at. “Welcome to the political machinations of felines,” he said with a dark sort of humour in his voice. He picked up his glass and took another mouthful. Q belatedly wondered if maybe he needed some, too. The glass was empty when it hit the bartop again, though. “Silva’s hoping to degrade me a bit in the eyes of those who favour me - I’ve got too many of our kin who like me for Silva’s liking, so he’s hoping that video proof of me fucking a rabbit will hurt my standing. There’s no one else really to challenge him, so that would make Silva’s entire day.” James’ voice was light, but his eyes kept catching every bit of light and glinting like eerie fires - and his claws were out again, gently scratching the bartop in a way that Q couldn’t help but be nervous about.

But suddenly Q’s thoughts were derailed as an early comment rammed through to the forefront of his thoughts. Off-balance, Q dragged his eyes away from James’ fearsome hands to stare in puzzlement at his handsome face instead. “Wait… then why did you do this? You just said yourself that Silva didn’t force you to do this - to accept my offer when I made it.”

Something in James’ face softened in a way Q wasn’t prepared for. The dim lighting made it hard for Q to really scrutinize it, but he could see more than well enough to know that Bond didn’t look upset by the question or even surprised by it. “Well, it didn’t seem like anyone else was going to step up and accept your offer.”

“That’s not an answer,” Q shook his head, stubborn despite the looming danger of his situation, “You just said yourself that this is the equivalent to political suicide for you.” And now that James had laid the situation out, Q could see it clearly himself: Bond and Silva, both powerful and charismatic beings in their clan - Silva wanting to crumble Bond’s power-base before it could become a proper threat to his. And James had not only walked right into it, but he’d basically handed Silva the tool to destroy him: a little rabbit named ‘Q’. “Why did you really do it? Did you just want to dig your claws into a rabbit that much?” If Bond was vying for power with a man like Silva, then surely he had to be able to match him in lethality - the whispers Q had heard once he’d entered the building supported that.

Q’s voice had been rising and maybe getting a bit hysterical around the edges, and only now did James frown and raise his own voice in kind, “No!” The one word was enough to shut Q up like a slap to the face, and James seemed to realize it. Taking a deep breath he went on, no longer shouting, “I did it because you didn’t have any other options, and I thought you deserved a chance.” 

For a moment Q just stared at him, then lost the fight with his instincts and stared at James’ hands instead, which had once again sprouted curving pale claws. “Bullshit. You don’t just throw everything away for someone you’ve never even laid eyes on before,” he said very quietly, voice hushed now with fear.

Q couldn't look at the cat’s face now, and felt himself start shaking again. But when Bond spoke it was in a voice gone suddenly very soft and gentle. This time when he said, “No, Q,” it was almost pleading. The increasing darkness around them - the sun was setting, albeit slowly - felt suddenly intimate and fragile. “Look, you’re right - we don’t know each other. But when you walked in there with your father and offered yourself up like you did, you showed bravery like I’ve never seen.”

“I didn’t have a choice-” Q started to snap back at him.

Bond interrupted firmly, “You certainly did. You could have kept your mouth shut. You could have run.” Now Q looked at him, uncertain, something in his chest so tight that it hurt - and while a lot of that was fear, some of it, for the first time, wasn’t. James’ eyes were unblinking and steady on Q’s, his body language open. “I don’t know if you were paying attention, but your father did try to run. You, though, stood your ground - and that’s something I’ve never seen anyone do to Silva, much less a rabbit.” While Q was trying and failing to come up with a response to that (feeling his cheeks heat up and his ears flicker in sudden embarrassment), James unexpectedly smirked and added, “Hell, you even stood up to Alec outside the elevator.”

“I did not!” Q immediately sputtered.

The grin grew more crooked and amused. “You very much did. He was texting me before you even came into the room. He was impressed by you, too, by the way.”

That finally seemed to break the backbone of Q’s terror, snapping it into more manageable pieces. He was still in a room with a cat - something that he’d been taught to fear since childhood - and his place in the world was entirely in limbo. But even though nothing made sense right now, at least there was something warm to cling to in James’ humour - and the recollection of the guard, Alec, who had apparently been impressed by a rabbit snapping at him.

Looking down and trying to stifle a stupid little smile at the thought of that, Q pulled himself together again to ask, “So what do we do now?”

“Now… well, now we have to at least follow through on our deal. By the rules of my clan, I can subsume someone’s debt by bringing them into the family,” James said, some of his words overly formal but also bored-sounding, as if he were repeating something he’d been taught ages ago but didn’t necessarily agree with. “Which, according to Silva-” Now James actually rolled his eyes, and for the first time Q admitted that the man was perhaps a little bit handsome… albeit in a terrifying way, “-Means consummating a marriage. I think we can do that without… er…” If the lighting had been better, Q suspected that he would have seen James blush uncomfortably before he went on, “Well, without taking things further than you’re comfortable with. I am not, nor have I ever been, interested in killing _or_ raping a rabbit.”

To hide just how much of a relief that was to hear, Q tried to put on a smile and joke, “Just not worth your time?”

The response was surprisingly quick and easy: “Oh, you’re definitely attractive. I’m just a bit too refined to kill for my supper and too classy to sleep with anyone who doesn’t want it.” Suddenly that crooked smirk was back, but this time it was broader than before, and there was something wicked in the way James’ feline eyes caught the light. “And a lot of people want it, from just about any clan you can think of.”

Unsure what to make of that and certainly not prepared to deal with sexual innuendo, Q just blinked stupidly for a second or two before managing a squeaked, “I’m glad that you’re so… broadly popular.” Honestly, now that he wasn’t blinded by pure terror, Q could look and say frankly that James was appealing - his white button-down did little to hide his athletic physique, and his intense eyes and silver tongue added to that to make a truly killer combo. In Q’s case, ‘killer’ was too apt a descriptor, and he couldn’t do anything to stop another little tremor of fear going through him. He wanted to get off this emotional roller-coaster now, please. 

Surprisingly, instead of preening at the new praise, James sobered and he became quiet again. He looked younger as he canted his head to the side, hands moving so that he clasped them between his knees and leaned forward a bit. Q wriggled in his seat, unsure what to do with this new level of attention, as James took him in wordlessly and solemnly for a moment. “I’ve never had the pleasure of being this close to a rabbit before, though,” James admitted softly, “They’re a bit too afraid of me, and there’s never been much I could do to change that.” 

For the first time Q wondered how old James was. He was no child, that much was obvious, but as he spoke now Q wondered if perhaps Bond acted older than he was. Casting back in his photographic memory, Q recalled Bond’s face under better lighting, earlier that day. The man couldn’t have been much past thirty, maybe five, six years Q’s senior at most. Just like Q had been today, though, James was having to make decisions that many folks twice their age never had to lose sleep over. 

Bond was extending a hand Q’s way now, and the boffin felt his breath catch in his throat as he remembered those claws. They were sliding beyond his range of sight - past his cheek, towards the satin finish of Q’s dark ears - before Q could see if there were five pearly sickles extended towards his skin. It wasn’t until he felt a soft touch against his left ear, and that touch never escalated into a rending pain of his ear being shredded, that he started breathing again. James’ fingertips slid down the back of Q’s ear while the man’s thumb pressed softly against the inside, an unexpectedly gentle stroke that made Q tremble again. This time he wasn’t sure that it was all from fear.

“You really are gorgeous to look at,” James said - soft again, like earlier when he might have been talking to himself, “And I don’t think I’m just saying that because you didn’t back down in front of Silva.” He’d reached nearly the tip of Q’s ear now, watching avidly the whole time as if trying to commit it all to memory, or that it was so unbelievable that he was touching the softness of a rabbit’s ear that he thought the moment would pop like a bubble if he looked away. A bit more serious (or at least in a tone that made it clear he was talking to Q and not just musing to himself), Bond went on, “To seal this deal - at least for the sake of the cameras - I’m going to have to touch you a bit more. Is that okay?”

“I… I think I’ll be all right with that,” Q answered a bit shakily. He wasn’t sure when he’d gotten breathless. Bond had reached the end of his ear and was just holding it, a light pinch between thumb and forefingers, as if he didn’t want to let go. Q, to his own surprise, didn’t want him to. “I imagine that… well… that this might require losing some clothes?”

“Probably on both our parts.”

“I can handle that,” Q nodded with more surety. He was trying to get a grip on himself, and ignore the strange adrenaline rush of realizing that James, far from wanting to kill him, seemed utterly entranced by him. As the middle child in a family of thirteen, Q wasn’t used to undivided attention under any circumstances. It was remarkably heady to realize that he had the utmost attention from a top predator. “If you can promise not to scratch me, I think I can put on a good enough show for Silva’s cameras. Will that help you maintain some of your status?”

“I think that any true ally I have will survive all of this,” James assured, and went on to promise with surprising eagerness, “And I can certainly keep my claws to myself. May I?”

Bond’s hand finally left Q’s ear, and skimmed to Q’s jacket - which he was still wearing, he realized for the first time. Of the two of them, he was the best dressed, and for some reason that brought a hot flush to Q’s cheeks. That flush got worse as he for some reason gave in and said, “Of course,” without giving it a thought. 

A beat later and James was surprising him by standing, gripping Q’s lapels to bring him to his feet in front of him. The easy application of strength made Q squeak, and James was quick to murmur, “Sorry! Sorry. You’re just very… light.”

“I’m a rabbit,” Q reminded, sounding peeved to hide that he was flustered. Then he got more flustered as James took that as continued permission to slide Q’s jacket off his shoulders. In the quietness of the room, the sound of the material hitting the floor seemed almost offensive, and Q twisted around with his ears snapping up in alarm. 

Somehow having a cat hushing, “Shhh, shh. Easy,” was reassuring rather than annoying. Q turned forward again, embarrassed at his own jumpiness, and tried to make up for it by bravely lifting his chin when James went for the buttons of his shirt. 

Feeling more and more vulnerable again as he felt the skin of his neck and then chest being revealed - with cameras watching, no less - Q found himself pleading very softly, “You, too?”

It wasn’t a very eloquent sentence, but to his credit, Bond’s brows only beetled for a moment before realization smoothed over his expression. He shifted his posture a bit even as he encouraged, “Of course, have at it, Q. I don’t embarrass easy, so you can take off whatever you like of mine.”

That didn’t help the hot flush that Q could feel spreading from his cheeks to his neck to his chest, and he gave Bond an irked little pout before gathering his courage in both hands and preparing to echo what James was doing: undressing him. They were meant to be consecrating a marriage of sorts, after all, or whatever society felt like calling a joining between a cat and a rabbit. It was incredibly difficult to keep his hands steady, and Q ended up having to lean his hands against Bond’s collarbones to steady himself. The immediate, radiant heat of the man’s skin through his button-down nearly took Q’s breath away - and almost distracted him from the hand that Bond slipped past the gaping collar of his shirt. Q’s buttons had been undone enough to allow James to press a warm, calloused palm right down over Q’s heart. 

For a moment they were silent. James looked entranced again, like he was seeing something he’d never thought he’d get a chance to in a million years - Q felt embarrassed. “Rabbit-fast, I imagine?” he tried for humour again, knowing that he missed the mark when his voice came out sounding awkward and shy. 

Blue eyes lifted immediately to meet his. A smile favoured him a beat later. “Steady,” James chose his own descriptor. Then he let a finger trace the smooth arc of Q’s right clavicle before returning to the task of undoing buttons. Q’s skin felt afire, and it took a deep breath before he even realized that he’d _stopped_ tackling James’ buttons. 


	2. The Curiosity of Cats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Q and Bond pretend to 'consummate' their marriage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had too many fluffy, sweet feels for one chapter so it spilled into two <3

What followed felt delicate and awkward, like trying to dance on thin ice. Q ended up mumbling apologies multiple times as his fingers shook and slipped in their task, and more often than not someone’s limbs got in the way. Predictably, Q’s shirt was the first to be completely undone, and he sucked in a sharp breath as James tugged it free of his waistband. Q sucked his breath back in, bracing himself to take the article of clothing off entirely - glad at least that the action of shedding his shirt didn’t take much dexterity. He wasn’t prepared for the way James watched him, however, the big cat’s eyes never leaving him even as one of Q’s arms got stuck in the sleeve and he had to swear once before getting fully free. When Q turned to face James again, prepared to say something about getting back to the task at hand, his breath was taken away by the singular intent on James’ face. It was like he’d never seen anything so fascinating as Q before.

“You’re really never been with a rabbit before, have you?” the reality of it sank in. Q’s ears, previously slicked back with nervousness, rose up curiously, swivelling forward to catch any faint noise Bond might make. 

James took a step forward, putting him closer into Q’s personal space. By now, the larger man’s shirt was gaping open nearly to his navel, revealing a powerful physique that no rabbit could ever hope to gain - his genetic background didn’t tend that way. A broad, unexpectedly scarred hand reached forward - sans claws - and Q held still. If Q were being truthful with himself, he was waiting in anticipation for the touch this time, and only twitched a little as fingertips feathered along the lines of his ribs. “You’re so… elegant. Lean,” James said by way of an answer, hand moving unexpectedly to the very limb that Q had gotten tangled in his shirt. Q held his breath for a moment as he felt a hint of the power of Bond’s grip, wrapping around his wrist and then loosening to slide down his hand and fingers. “Some of my kind are quite lithe, but… not quite like this.”

“Well, the ears do rather set me apart,” Q managed. He was aiming for a dry tone, but in reality he found that his whole mouth was suddenly dry. He had to wet his lips, fingertips tingling as Bond’s touch traced the tendons all the way to the end. 

At Q’s sentence, James’ eyes snapped up, catching the light like blue mirrors for just a moment. Q resisted the urge to flatten his leporine ears against his head, even as James blatantly stared at them. Thankfully, the cat also smiled, softening the intensity of his scrutiny. “They are a bit hard to miss,” he admitted, then got to work on his own buttons, finishing the job in a fraction of the time it had been taking Q. It was but the work of a moment before powerful shoulders were shrugging out of the material, leaving James and Q similarly naked to the waist. “Trousers next? I think we can keep our respective pants on while still putting on a show, if you’re up for it.”

By this point it was Q who was staring, trying to figure out when precisely he’d become attracted to athletic cats. Even by predatory standards, James was _built_. “Sure. Yes,” he said, distracted by the interplay of muscles on James’ stomach. Q wasn’t picky about the gender of people he was attracted to, but up until now he’d thought that his type kept mostly to builds like his - slim, small, lean, unthreatening. But Bond had promised that he wasn’t a threat, and he’d kept his promise by keeping his claws retracted this whole time, and the adrenaline of fear in Q’s system had started morphing into something else that buzzed in his veins. 

Q’s distraction got worse over the next few minutes - as they did indeed lose more clothing. Q managed to get out of his trousers as inelegantly as his shirt, if only because he was staring so badly at James’ slow striptease that he completely forgot his own socks and shoes. Q felt positively scrawny by comparison by the time they were both in just their pants, Q fighting with his last sock and James definitely smirking with amusement as he watched. 

The loss of more clothing had revealed a few more things, though - things which garnered equal fascination on both sides. James’ eyes and claws were not his only animal trait, it turned out, and finally Q was able to figure out exactly what variety of cat he was dealing with: Bond was no housecat. A thickly-furred tail of black, grey, and white had been artfully hidden in the expensive cut of James’ clothes, and although said tail seemed a lot shorter than it should have been, it was distinctly that of a snow-leopard. Bond’s icy eyes suddenly made sense. 

“Lost half of it in a dicey situation almost a decade ago,” James said with a grimace when he caught Q staring. The tail in question flicked back and forth testily. “It’s still good for balance in a pinch, but unless I’m doing something acrobatic, I tend to just keep it tucked away.” 

If Q wasn’t mistaken, James was actually uncomfortable - this from the man who had thus far stripped in front of and frequently touched a stranger unabashedly. “Are you seriously more embarrassed by a docked tail than by the prospect of faking sex with a rabbit?” Q asked in blunt disbelief. 

Bond gave Q another one of those looks that said the boffin had surprised him, and then dragged a hand down his face. It looked like a frustrated gesture until he started chuckling against his palm. “Touche,” he admitted, and somehow the tensions in the room eased even more after that. 

A good ten minutes of faking sex later, and James and Q were lying next to each other in the bed. “You think it’s finally too dark for Silva to be spying on us through the cameras now?” Q asked, tangling and untangling his fingers where he’d messed them atop the blankets, over his middle. James had only touched him a little in the past faux-shenanigans - the blue-eyed snow-leopard knew where the cameras were and knew how to play the angles. Q was grateful, although it was still overwhelming to just be reclining beneath the same blankets as James.

There was that flash of reflective blue again, as James glanced around them, judging the light. “Since Silva didn't have time to splurge on night-vision cameras, I think we’re pretty safe now, so long as we don’t get up and make any suspicious silhouettes.”

“Meaning I can’t make a bolt for the door?” Q snorted.

Bond’s grin was broad enough to be visible. “Alas, no bolting. Do you think you can stand being stuck in a bed with me until morning?”

“Well, you have kept your claws to yourself, as promised,” Q mused, settling in a bit more comfortably. He was used to close quarters, to younger siblings snuggled up next to him, to the warmth of multiple bodies. This felt weird in contrast, and it was hard to catalogue what details he liked and which he didn’t. “And since you did just go out of your way to keep me and my family out of a lot of trouble, the least I can do is stay in bed with you.”

“It was no trouble,” James brushed it off, then grimaced and amended, “Well, actually it was a lot of trouble - but if you knew me, you’d know that I get into trouble regularly. So at least this was for a good cause.”

“Salvaging the disaster caused by a rabbit with gambling problems… is a good cause?” Q couldn’t help but deadpan, rolling over onto his stomach and hugging the pillow up under his face. When his ears flicked up to listen alertly for an answer, he didn’t miss the way that James’ eyes snapped to them - it appeared that James wasn’t done being fascinated by his leporine company. 

“Maybe,” James hedged. He was still watching Q’s ears, and reached out with one hand as if drawn by a magnet. Once again Q held very, very still, holding his breath, as a hand with carefully-retracted claws touched the silken edge of his ear. James finished with his attention still on the rabbit-ear in his grip, “Saving the life of an uncommonly brave individual is definitely a good cause, though.”

Q pressed the lower half of his face against the pillow until his glasses dug into his nose, as if to hide his blush - it was dark, but a panther like Bond could see in the dark. He also didn’t want to risk James asking if Q’s flush was because he was being complimented or because someone was fondling his left ear again. Q’s elder siblings like to tweak his ears when they were skeeved off at him, and his mother liked to pat down his hair and his ears both when making him presentable, but no one had ever touched them with the same mesmerized reverence that James was. 

“So what now?” Q asked. He didn’t twitch his ear away, even though he still had some instincts screaming at him that putting any delicate part of himself within reach of a cat’s claws was just asking for trouble. In fact, when it seemed like Bond might let go, Q just maybe… perhaps… cocked that ear forward a bit more, keeping it in James’ grip. 

The panther’s mouth twitched in a delighted smile. “Well, for now we have the night to ourselves without any pressing responsibilities,” he said lightly, rolling a bit more onto his side so that he could continue his exploration of Q’s ear more comfortably. This time instead of venturing towards the tip of it, his touch started sinking down towards Q’s head, and Q found himself more okay with that than expected. He was also, admittedly, quite distracted by relaxed contours of Bond’s shoulders and pectoral muscles, limned in silver in the dark room. “We’ll figure out where to go from there in the morning.”

Maybe it was because of the little fizz of adrenaline still in his veins, relit by James’ hand growing more and more bold, but Q found himself teasing, “Oh, so you didn’t plan any further than ‘getting married to a rabbit’ today?”

“Cheeky little shit, aren’t you?” Bond retorted with a smile playing at one side of his mouth. Then his expression sobered, returning to the look that Q now was starting to recognize - it seemed to come right before James’ curiosity urged him to push boundaries. Q’s parents would have likely found this endlessly rude, but it was making Q’s heart do funny, excited things in his chest. “Do you mind if I…?” James started, then stopped as if uncertain how to finish this sentence. His quick tongue was tripping him up again. 

“Yes,” Q blurted before he actually realized that James wasn’t even going to finish his sentence. He immediately buried his stupid mouth against the pillow again, shoulders hunching up in embarrassment.

Thankfully James was too interested in investigating his rabbit bedmate to call Q on his eagerness. Without any further hesitation, James’ fingers sank down into Q’s hair, finding where the ear met the side of Q’s head, the fur there soft and downy. It was at this point that Q realized his mistake, because he was also quite sensitive there… and had always loved a good scritch. He muffled an involuntary noise of pleasure against the pillow as James’ blunt, human fingernails curled in against his scalp, thumb rubbing a firm, investigative circle against the base of Q’s ear. 

There was a low noise that Q eventually translated as James chuckling, but it was hard to be offended by it when the man kept rubbing the way he did. “Like that, do you?” James asked, incandescently smug; Q ducked his head as far into the pillows as he could without either smooshing his glasses or dislodging James’ hand, “Do all rabbits go for having their ears rubbed, or is it just you?”

“I… I don’t know,” Q admitted, hugging the pillow but shifting so that he could tuck it under his chin and talk over it. It seemed polite. “I don’t… er… have a lot of dating experience. And my siblings share a lot of information but-” Q lost his words temporarily as the ministrations of Bond’s fingers became too distracting; his eyes had to flutter closed and his mouth simply hung open in a soft ‘o’ for a moment. He caught his train of thought belatedly and forced himself to finish the sentence, “-Ear-related preferences aren’t among them.”

“Well, if I’m married to you now, it’s probably your preferences that I should care about first and foremost anyway,” James replied charmingly. Now Bond’s expression had settled somewhere between smug and enchanted, and Q found that he likewise couldn’t look away from that expression - because he’d never inspired such a look in anyone before. To think that he’d be looked at this way by a cat… 

And maybe that was what prompted the next sentence to fall right out of Q’s mouth: “You know… you could always find out… more of my preference?” His words were clumsy and lilted upwards at the end into an involuntary question, but for the first time, he knew that the thrill that kicked through his heart was not due to fear. Excitement and anxiety were close relatives to fear, true, but Q was beginning to parse out the differences between all of those similar emotions, thus finding out which ones were tolerable. And maybe a bit delightful. He certainly had never felt this heady, combustible mix of emotions with any of his previous bed-partners, few that those had been. 

James’ eyebrows jumped upwards, but Q could see interest light his eyes even in the dark. “The cameras can’t really see us now,” James reminded, caution limning his words like a spring’s final frost.

Q leaned his head a bit, nudging his ear against the fingers that had gone still. He kept his eyes locked on Bond’s, though, as he murmured frankly, “That’s rather the point, really. You see, you might be more embarrassed by your tail than you are by fake-fucking a rabbit, but I’m rather more embarrassed by… well… real touching… than I am by the fake-fucking. If that makes any sense.”

“Oh, I think that makes more than enough sense for me,” James was quick to confirm. His hand closed briefly around Q’s ear, an unconscious action, Q was pretty sure, and it made his breath catch as he felt the delicate part of himself briefly threatened by the strength of Bond’s grip. Before the buzz of ensuing adrenaline could become true fear, however, James let go. His fingers drifted down from Q’s ear - thumb sliding a warm path down the inside, making Q’s ear flick ticklishly - to the side of his neck, playing briefly with a lock of hair. “If you’re sure of this,” James checked. 

“It’s endearing that you’re asking, but considering you were pretending to hump me enthusiastically just minutes ago, I think that a bit more exploration is okay,” Q said glibly. Perhaps the adrenaline was making him a bit manic; he was fighting the urge to giggle, and wondered just what had gotten hold of him. He hadn't even had any alcohol, and yet he felt drunk on this entire unbelievable situation. He was in bed with… married to, in fact, by all accounts... a cat. A very handsome cat who had actually proven that he had no intentions of harming his rabbit bedmate. It was all so improbable that Q’s usually logical brain had clearly given up on computing it all, leaving only Q’s more _animal impulses_ to deal with the situation. “And, I mean, we are married and all. Or paired up. Or whatever snow-leopards call it.” Q buried his mouth down into the pillow to shut himself up again. Even as he did so, however, he felt his skin tingle with anticipation, and he found that as much as he wanted to delete all of the words he’d just said, he was equally determined to see where those words got him. More determined, in fact. After all, Bond’s hands were clearly quite clever…

“I suppose you do have a point,” Bond followed along, looking amused and intrigued now. He shuffled a bit closer on the bed, so that even without anything but ambient city night light escaping past the blinds, Q could pick up more minutiae of Bond’s expression. Q also realized that he himself could easily reach out to touch as well now, but clutched his pillow tighter instead. Somehow he had enough courage for everything else, but not that. 

Fortunately, Bond didn’t seem troubled by this, and by the way he canted his head a little, perhaps he noticed the little vestiges of Q’s anxiety. “So while I’ve never been married before, I do know that there are some things that cats often do with their husbands and wives - non-intimate things,” he said in a thoughtful tone, the last bit with perhaps a bit of reassurance that Q didn’t want to admit made him relax. His mouth was perhaps making promises that the rest of him wasn’t ready to keep. James’ palm was lightly cupping the back of Q’s jaw as he went on, “One of the most common but least noticeable traits that most of my clan have are scent glands in our wrist and sometimes around our head.”

Facts always had a way of getting to Q, and he found himself lifting his head alertly. “So you have all of those?”

Mouth twitching at Q’s new level of interest, James nodded. “Back of my jaw and under my chin. And inside of both wrists, of course.” He suddenly moved his hand until Q felt one of said wrists rub against the side of his neck. “Couples tend to do this, because other cats will know what’s mine now.”

The possessiveness of gesture had Q shivering, but it only heightened his curiosity. “My nose isn’t particularly keen,” he admitted - hyper senses were traits that some prey-animals got, but not all, and not Q, “but could I smell it?”

“I’m sure you could, from close enough,” James responded easily. It was clear that he thought this a hypothetical question - when in reality it was Q being a bit sneaky about asking for permission. So as soon as James said “you could,” Q let go of his pillow and propped himself up on his arms, leaning forward into Bond’s personal space before common sense could get the better of him. He nearly overbalanced, but thankfully ended up where he intended, which was with his nose brushing up against the back of James Bond’s unfairly strong jaw. The hand that James had been brushing against Q’s throat hung frozen in the air, Bond’s arm extended now over Q’s left shoulder as he was caught by surprise. 

In the unique position of being the one exploring James instead of the other way around now, Q felt a little thrill of excitement. It was enough to bolster his courage a bit more, enough so that he could press his nose right against the hollow behind James’ ear and inhale. “I think I can smell something musky,” he said, and was entirely unprepared for the intimacy of hearing his own words muffled next to someone else’s skin.

And James, the turd, had it in him to glibly joke back, “That might just be me.” He even tipped his head a bit, coaxing, “You might have to get closer. Licking might also help.”

The blush that hit Q was enough that he felt he was combusting, but he also couldn’t help the giggles that spontaneously erupted from his chest. “You’re shameless!” he accused amidst the barely-contained laughter. The burst of humour morphed into something comfortable and warm when he realized James was chuckling with him, and the arm over his shoulder curled around behind him. When the laughter faded and Q settled down, they were closer than before, Q on his belly again but now with his left shoulder nearly touching James; James’ right knee brushed Q’s thigh where it was crooked against the bed. 

James was up on one elbow on his side, cheek propped against a closed fist, just watching Q like some delightful gem that kept throwing light in new ways. “You know, I’m starting to think that getting myself into this might have been one of the best ideas I’ve ever had.”

Chin on his folded arms, Q looked up at James from beneath his lashes, feeling his flush return. “I’m flattered. I think?” 

“Don’t get ahead of yourself - the bar has been set pretty low for me when it comes to best ideas,” James retorted blithely, and Q couldn’t help but snort at him. Then James’ free hand came to rest on Q’s back, fingers splaying across the expense of Q’s left shoulderblade like he needed to map its edges. “But I think that by any standards, you’re quite a catch, Q,” James finished in an entirely different tone, much lower, much softer. 

Q didn’t know what to say. He opened his mouth a few times, but it was like before when no sound came out. Eventually he ended up just breathing in deeply (feeling it as his back pressed up against Bond’s hand, like leaning into something sun-warmed) then saying gustily on the exhale, “Are you just trying to butter me up?”

Bond’s smirk was Cheshire. “Maybe I am just trying to put you in the best possible mood before I ask you if I can touch that puffy tail of yours. I’ve barely resisted ever since I saw it poking out of your pants.”

“You cad!” Dissolving temporarily into snickers again, Q almost didn’t notice when James turned his hand a bit - subtly rubbing the inside of his wrist against Q’s shoulder. It made Q’s heart do a funny flop in his chest, and perhaps that was what ultimately encouraged him to allow, “Fine. Just don’t pull it.”

By the expression on Bond’s face, he hadn’t been expecting the quick acceptance. “I- Of course,” he said after a slight stutter. 

Nonsensically proud of unbalancing a cat of all people, Q smiled a little Cheshire smile of his own and settled down again. Now he had the pillow up under his chest, and rested his chin on folded arms and tried to appear like this was all commonplace. As James, after a thoughtful pause, sat up a bit and slid the blankets down and away from them, Q was pretty sure his body gave him away in little ways: the minute quivering of his alertly pricked ears, the involuntary flick his tail gave when the blanket reached the level of Q’s thighs. Bond was still reclining on his side, but Q could see rather a lot more of his now, and likewise James could view him - and most definitely was. Pale, reflective blue eyes slid across Q’s bare skin like a physical touch. 

“Like what you see?” Q asked, trying to sound haughty and sure of himself but the words coming out shy instead. Considering how athletically built James was, Q figured he could be forgiven for some feelings of inadequacy - rabbits simply were not genetically predisposed towards muscular builds.

Bond seemed fine with that, though. In fact, if the look in his eyes were any indicator, or the way he couldn’t seem to _stop_ looking, he was more than fine. “Most definitely,” James replied, even as his hand settled between Q’s shoulder-blades. It began a slow, almost reverent stroke down Q’s spine as the panther added, “If anyone thinks to tease me about getting myself tied to a rabbit, I’ll remember this moment and laugh at them. Because they’re the ones missing out.”

The words combined with the touch robbed Q of words, and he dropped his face down into the lee of his arms - which didn’t actually help, because with nothing to look at, it left more of his mind to focus on the warm hand sliding down his back. Calluses were a tantalizing texture against Q’s smooth skin, moving inevitably lower on his body. From between the arches of Q’s shoulder-blades, past where his ribs were expanding and contracting in shallow, controlled breaths, the ticklish small of his back… Far too late, Q realized how close this put James’ hand to his arse, and his ears gave a little swivel of alarm. Q weathered his panic in silence, however, biting his lip because he knew that this would only get more embarrassing if he suddenly leapt off the bed.

Just as Bond’s fingers passed the little divots on either side of Q’s lower back, his touch became so light and tentative that it was almost painful in a way, Q’s nerves straining towards each moth-light brush of skin-on-skin. It was like how James had first touched Q’s ears, so driven by curiosity and yet so hesitant. Q just about growled for James to stop playing around and grab it already when he felt a slow stroke - probably the backs of Bond’s knuckles - across the back of his tail. Bond’s touch pressed Q’s puff of a tail down against his arse-cheeks briefly, and there was a strange relief in being touched firmly at long last, to the point where Q breathed out a deep sigh. 

“It’s not as soft as your ears,” James remarked. He didn’t sound disappointed, just faintly surprised. He was still up on one elbow, fingertips testing the puffiness of Q’s fur and occasionally (maybe not _quite_ accidentally) brushing against the band of Q’s pants. 

“I’m sorry to break it to you,” Q quipped in return, wincing internally at how breathy his voice sounded. He finished the sentence anyway, “But not all of me is as soft as a baby bunny.”

“Oh, I know that. And I wouldn’t change it for the world,” the panther surprised Q by saying. Q looked over to see Bond’s foreshortened tail curl into view before dropping back to the bed, the man all the while just watching his own exploration of Q’s little pom-pom. “After all, it really wasn’t your softness that had me accepting your deal today,” James went on, and his hand lifted away from Q’s tail for a moment - it reappeared as the sensation of one finger on the middle of Q’s back. “It was actually your steely spine.” As James said that last phrase, he slowly dragged his fingertip down said spine, all the way to the tip, where Q’s tail gave an utterly involuntary little quiver. 

Perhaps realizing that they were on the precipice of something - something with a sheer drop that neither of them was quite prepared to handle yet - James left Q’s rabbit anatomy be after that and reached for the blankets instead. This time he drew them back up over both of them. “Do you think you can sleep, Q? Tomorrow’s probably going to be filled with more cat politics,” James warned ruefully as he settled down on his back, propping one arm under his head so that he could turn and look at Q more easily. The blankets were covering most of his torso again, but the pose did wonderful things to his arms and collarbones. 

“I have twelve siblings, and half of them hate bedtimes and the other half are old enough to have teenage insomnia,” Q retorted, “I could sleep through a train wreck, I’m pretty sure.” Skin still tingling from all the unexpected attention, Q wriggled a bit against the blankets, then frowned in realization, “Shit, but I have work tomorrow.”

By the way Bond’s whole body twitched and he frowned, too, this was something his brain hadn’t even considered. “Where do you work?”

“Not going to make your new rabbit into a trophy husband?” Q felt bold enough to tease.

Bond snorted and then surprised Q by reaching forward and gripping one of his ears playfully. It was almost like something that all little leverets did, in rough-and-tumble playfighting, but gentler, with a more obvious focus on Bond’s blunt fingertips pressing against the curve of Q’s ear - a cat grabbing at something but purposefully keeping claws retracted. Much as James had seemed fascinated by all of Q’s leporine qualities, Q now found himself momentarily speechless at this small, thoughtlessly feline thing. He barely heard as James called him a “Mouthy little bastard” and then let go, all without seeming to overthink the gesture. “I’m taking this situation one step at a time, but I definitely don’t see any benefit from making a pet of you,” James admitted freely. Q felt something brush against the side of his knee and realized it was a curious twitch of Bond’s snow leopard tail; it felt plush and soft. “Where do you work?”

“A computer repair shop. People bring in all manner of broken electrical things and I fix them,” Q shrugged. “Or else little old ladies call in because they can’t figure out how to turn their wifi on.”

Bond rolled onto his side to face Q, looking more interested. “So you’re good with computers then?”

“Please,” Q scoffed, rolling his eyes - then he shot James a look down his nose, making himself as haughty as possible, “I’m _great_ with computers.”

By Bond’s grin, he found Q’s lack of humility delightful. “You just keep getting more interesting by the minute.”

“Honestly, if my parents didn’t watch me like hawks, I’d have probably hacked into some of the gambling systems to fix my father’s debt,” Q went ahead and said, watching James closely for signs that this was crossing a line - after all, Silva and his clan (which included Bond) were in control of most of those gambling systems. “Don’t worry, though - I haven’t saved up enough money for a proper computer, so my hacking skills are pretty stifled.”

Q expected some amount of censure to rise up in Bond’s expression. He was not expecting, instead, to see keen interest. “If you were to, say, get an expensive computer-” he started to say slowly, one hand on the bed between them, flexing quietly; no claws, still, but it was a very catlike motion. “-Just how good would you say your hacking skills would be?”

Q flipped his ears forward, warily curious despite himself. “Super-villain calibre,” he chose as his answer, then his ears gave an uncertain swivel, “Soooo are you regretting your shotgun wedding to a rabbit yet?”

“Regretting it?” James’ eyebrows winged upwards, and he let out an incredulous bark of sound before smiling. “Q, I’m feeling like I won the lottery more and more with every time you open your mouth. I’ve had top-pedigree cats try to set me up with potential partners who aren’t a fraction as interesting as you’ve been in just the past hour.”

“You’ve had arranged marriages thrown your way?” For some reason, that sounded hilarious.

Bond’s expression twisted into a grimace. “Entirely too often. I’m Silva’s second-in-command and wealthy in my own right, and snow leopards aren’t exactly common,” he explained distastefully, “You’d be surprised how many in my clan are interested in maintaining _the best bloodlines_. They’ll be losing their bloody minds when they realize that I’m taken now.” James relaxed against the pillow for a moment, looking up at the ceiling as if pondering this for the first time. A whimsical smile that was more than a little bit evil played at the corners of his mouth. “This is an unexpected bonus to our arrangement that I hadn’t fully considered until now. That and your potential hacking skills.”

“I know I was joking about having ‘super-villain calibre’ hacking skills,” Q deadpanned, watching James now with new eyes, “but I didn’t realize that I was the one getting into a marriage with a mastermind.”

“Do you regret it?” James tossed back. His sentence was quick, but the way he turned to watch Q out of the corner of one eye was _too_ nonchalant, too relaxed. Which just meant that James cared too much about the answer.

And maybe that was why Q, after a deep breath and a quiver of nerves, shuffled forward a bit until he could pillow his head on one of Bond’s biceps. He maintained eye-contact the whole time, and breathed a sigh of relief when James showed no signs of rebuffing him. “Not so far,” he said, also keeping his voice nonchalant and relaxed, matching James’ because that seemed fair. By the faint sharpening of Bond’s gaze, he noticed. “I mean, I’m alive, my family is safe, and you’ve promised me a new laptop.”

James’ mouth quirked up on one side. “I have, have you?”

“Mm-hm. I assume you want me to use it against Silva?” Q guessed.

Bond’s smile grew in small but wicked increments. At this close, his eyes were like the hottest of blue flames. “Of course. I mean, the bastard does keep trying to make life difficult for me - so it seems fair to return the favour. Will that be a problem for you, helping me with some personal vendettas?”

“Considering that Silva keeps encouraging gambling addicts like my father to keep feeding their addiction,” Q said, letting a bit of the ugliness he felt slip into his voice, nose wrinkling in the start of a snarl, “No. I have the opposite of a problem with that.”

“Q, I might love you,” James said with the widest smirk that Q had seen thus far. The man looked positively delighted.

And Q felt warmed all over, because this had to be the most appreciated he’d felt in all of his life. True, his parents loved him, and his siblings, too - but even Q’s fairly progressive mother was uncertain about Q’s computer skills, and he hadn’t even dared to tell any of his siblings about his more illicit abilities. Q didn’t have to be a genius to know what a shitstorm that would cause. Yet here he was, forced into a marriage with a cat who looked like he’d gotten all the cream with every new thing Q revealed about himself. The way Bond looked at and touched Q’s body certainly added something to the situation a well… Settling down a bit more and finally plucking his glasses off his nose, Q said as airily as possible, “Well good, because you’re stuck with me. It’s already going to be enough of a scandal that we’re married, so don’t even think about divorcing me until… at least a month's trial period.”

James plucked Q’s glasses from his grip so that he could set them on the bedside table, which was closer to him. “Two months,” James countered, “I don’t want you running off either - especially if we’re both in the middle of destroying Silva’s little empire.”

“Hmmm. That might take three months - to do it well, I mean. Three month trial period?”

“At least,” James glibly agreed, and then slung an arm over Q’s shoulders and settled down to sleep as well. His breath puffed softly and warmly against Q’s bangs, and Q could smell the musky scent of him again - especially when James angled his head and not-so-subtly buffed his jaw against Q’s head. 

“Scent-marking me again?” Q asked, then yawned. The stresses of the day had drained him more than he’d realized, and it was hitting him now without warning. 

Bond made a sleepy noise in the affirmative. His right wrist dragged across Q’s left shoulder-blade before James’ fingers found the very tip of one of Q’s ears. He rubbed it softly between thumb and forefinger until Q let out a little hum. “Have to make sure nobody thinks they can take you from me, now that I have you,” James finished in a drowsy whisper. 

Q found himself wishing that the lights were on, if only so Silva’s damn cameras could see just what his machinations had gotten him. “So much for playing us like pawns, Silva, you bastard,” Q mumbled, thinking that the words were all inside of his head before he felt more than heard James’ chuckle against him. The hand playing with his ear rose up to bury itself more in his hair, and Q drifted off to sleep to the feeling of James’ tail flopped over his thigh. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully everyone enjoyed Q and his soft fuzzy bits (and his nice steely spine) - and Bond with his fascination for soft, genius rabbits! There was a sprinkling of plot in there, but it was mostly just to provide a framework for shameless sweetness. I figured that what we all needed in these days of COVID was lots of sensual touching :)


End file.
